Pete Braven’s Comments

This could get really interesting if us guys who make a living out of wearing kilts gets to the attention of these lawyers.I am referring of course to myself, Badpiper, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and of course not forgetting all the Scots regimental bands, ah, that would also include many US Police and Fire Service bands too!Oh and just to throw another legal spanner in the works here. How about a possibly devolved Scottish Parliament suing the lot of them for use of a centuries old traditional 'trademark' dress? Well that would sort out a hole in their budget eh?

Hang on a minute, there have already been many people arrested for what they post/download from the Internet. As several other less official bodies have proved, if you go on the net anywhere,the chances are someone is going to find out. Creating a 'bill' isn't going to start anything, it might actually make it harder for the Canadian govt. to use such evidence!
Being a politician does not require technical knowledge obviously!

HEARTLAND (Heart - Land) = oxymoron. Can anyone with half a braincell actually functioning, listen to Heartland's opinions and believe anything this bunch of financially driven muppets come out with?
The idea that they could actually take on all those who think they suck, proves conclusively that they have absolutely no grasp on reality in the first place!
(My sincere apologies to the Muppets for the abuse of their name.)

"... government-granted monopolies are necessary to encourage innovation in a market. The idea is that, without such protectionism, no one would bother innovating, because they'd know that others would immediately copy them."
1/ Monopolies and innovation don't really happen in the real world, not together anyway.
2/ Brilliant minds will innovate, protected or otherwise. Someone once said innovation is like sex, protect it and you remove the whole point!
3/ If someone copies your idea, it was good one. If they do it cheaper, your business model is rubbish.
4/ And finally, put the word 'government' in anything with innovation and all you get is FUBAR!

I've had EXACTLY the scenario mentioned here happen to me, a major TV company used my music with no credits to me. (They even credited it to their own in-house composer!)
I didn't waste time with legal crap that would have seen me paying a stack of money to some smart-ass legal team, I just contacted another TV network and sold them the story, complete with permission to use the track. It worked a treat! 1st company took issue with 2nd company, got very red-faced and also gave me a few more quid to say sorry. I sold a few hundred albums straight off the back of that and I couldn't have bought that kind of publicity as an independent!

To be honest, of some really smart little geek feels the need to text behind the wheel of a ton of metal at 60 mph,.. let the natural laws of selection sort them out and take that link out of the gene-pool!

The first 'mobile device' I had was a rather bulky thing the size or a couple of house-bricks and weighed considerably more due to the power being gel-acid batteries! Ok, so I must be an old fart and I'll admit to that.
Point about China having so many knock-off items is that nearly everything you buy with a very expensive western logo on it was made in China anyway! If western companies did not outsource to places where they take advantage of workers being paid a pittance for their skills, those workers might have the money to afford the 'genuine article',.. rather than having to create something more suited to their meagre incomes.
That also begs the question, if these 'knock-offs are so cheap yet have the same functions, why are we paying so far over the odds? Oh,.. some posh git wants a new Ferrari,..

Hang on, you are using the word 'trust' in a sentence that include a government department, this is a prime example of an 'oxymoron'.
Anyone who understands politicians knows that political 'transparency' is akin the the glass used for welding masks, photon blasts and solar observations!

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
If a government wants to get hold of anything, we know all too well they will, especially if getting hold of it is supposed to be difficult!
Conversely, if they ain't supposed to lose stuff,... it turns up on the internet!

".. we need to draw the line somewhere to protect children from runaway consumerism, then this lawsuit makes sense."

So then we also need to sue a load of churches or religions who 'brainwash' our kids, politicians who visit schools to influence 'future voters', the list would get very silly.
The answer is not legislation but better parenting, a TV is NOT a babysitter!!

There is of course plently of green technology happening and many people are using it. What possibly thows the patent offices, is that a very large chunk of it is developed very much as open source technology.
The attitude of most inventors/innovators in 'green tech' is that the patents process makes such developments far too expensive for the resulting inventions to benefit the environment,.. so they publish the whole thing as free and it then gets far greater use with other applications built around it.
The 'green tech' community has been telling governments and legal bodies to 'foxtrot-oscar' for years!

"If they don't do the test, how does the EPA have any oversight? What if there was another part of the vehicle that was bad for the air? Maybe it had no tailpipe, but the electric motor spit out noxious fumes as a byproduct?"

Er,.. I think this is more a matter of officials in government offices having absolutely no idea what any of the legislation they pump out actually applies to. They probably don't have collectively, enough technical knowledge to pass an elementary physics exam.
I'm surprised they have the wits to make a decent legal case!

I'm a musician and songwriter but my other passion is electronics and I've worked in that for years. It's interesting to see that in many cases when new technology has been introduced, it gets cloned into some musical application before the rest of the world has even 'got their boots on'.
The first magnetic recorders were supposed to be for communications but Bing Crosby saw the chance to try them for music. Hendrix liked the way his guitar sounded when a small transistor blew, we now have distorted guitar on nearly everything!
If the artist is left to get on with tye creative process that is in his/her head, rather than what is in the mind of some banker in accounts,.. the possibilities are endless!
As this brilliant novelty proves all too well.

Well yes you do have a point. I don't think that will remove X-Rays from hospitals though and to be honest, the risk of being killed by a random X-Ray is a heck of a lot less than the risk from a random IED driven into your town by a random religious nutter!